Overcoming Challenges for Exiting Shared Ownership

Shared ownership was designed as a stepping stone to full homeownership. For many people, it has worked exactly as intended. But for a growing number of shared owners, what was sold as a flexible tenure has become something closer to a trap — with no clear or viable way out. In episode 229 of the Social Housing Round Table, part of the Policy and Governance stream, Matt Baird is joined by Sue Phillips and Jamie Ratcliff of Shared Ownership Resources to explore the barriers facing shared owners who are trying to exit the scheme, and why the sector — and government — still does not have a clear picture of what is going wrong. The timing of the session is significant. On the very morning of the recording, the Housing Communities and Local Government Committee published its long-awaited report on affordable housing, concluding that shared ownership is not a long-term affordable option for many of the buyers to whom it is marketed. The National Audit Office has previously found that data on shared ownership has been incomplete, and that even MHCLG does not fully understand customer journeys and experience. Shared Ownership Resources, which recently registered as a charity and was awarded an MHCLG Social Housing Innovation Fund grant, is working to change that. Their first insights report — on exit routes and buyback — aims to bring together lived experience, sector expertise, and legal expertise to address what Sue describes as a fairly intractable set of problems. The session covers the gap between how easy it is to enter shared ownership and how difficult it can be to leave, the financial and structural barriers to staircasing and resale, the striking lack of standardisation in buyback policies across housing providers, and what better guidance and practice could look like. If shared ownership sits within your world, this is a conversation worth hearing. Big thank you to Alertacall Ltd for sponsoring The Social Housing Round Table, without them, none of this would be possible.